Little Red Lies

August 12, 2013
WWII may have ended, but 14-year-old Rachel McLaren still has plenty of things getting her down: the eczema that has her forever itching her arms; her small Canadian town; her older brother, Jamie, who has just returned from the war traumatized and demoralized; not getting the lead in the school play; and her overbearing mother and grandmother. While Rachel’s troubles draw sympathy, they pale next to Jamie’s: his best friend is missing in action, his love interest’s Catholicism makes them an impossible match in the eyes of his mother, and he’s haunted by war memories that Johnston (A Very Fine Line) explores in brutally honest letters that Jamie wrote overseas but never sent home (“The enemy, the ones still with faces, in death looked like children pretending to sleep”). Although this coming-of-age story includes perhaps a few too many tragic elements (leukemia and a predatory teacher also factor in), Johnston gives equal weight to struggles major and trivial as she sensitively examines the painful process of rebuilding one’s life under the most difficult of circumstances. Ages 10–up.

Starred review from August 1, 2013
Rachel, after donning an inappropriately bright lipstick called "Little Red Lies," welcomes her beloved elder brother, James, back from World War II. Unfortunately, lies aren't confined to the lipstick. James, deeply altered by the war, glosses over his disturbing experiences to his family, although letters he continues to write to Rachel--but has never sent--contain the truth of the brutality. Tragically, once safely home, he develops leukemia, a lethal illness in 1947. Rachel lies to him to convince him to visit a faith healer, whom she then recognizes as a fraud. Then she lies to her parents (and herself) about the intentions of a handsome but predatory teacher who's playing up to her as well as other girls. After her mom conceives an unplanned baby, it's concealed from both Rachel and James. When they discover, embarrassingly late, the cause of her weight gain, James feels convinced the baby is intended as a replacement for him. The seeming surfeit of subplots is believably explained and sensitively written, succeeding largely due to Rachel's spunky though almost pathetically naive first-person voice, which rings fully true. At one point, the whole town believes James has the clap, largely because Rachel overheard then repeated a conversation she didn't understand. Filled with bumbling characters who achingly love each other, this coming-of-age tale rises above a crowded field to take readers on a moving journey of discovery. (Historical fiction. 12 & up)

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December 1, 2013

Gr 6-9-At 14, Rachel McLaren is finding it difficult to grow up with all of the trouble at home. Jamie, her older brother, returns from World War II and continually relives the battles and horrors in the trenches. His family assumes he is suffering from stress, but eventually he learns that he has leukemia. While Jamie is in and out of remission, Mrs. McLaren becomes pregnant. Rachel learns to grow up in a hurry once her baby brother arrives and her mother stays in bed all day with postpartum depression. The girl is faced with a handsome new teacher who exhibits inappropriate behavior toward many of the girls. The appeal of the story is that the problems are real and not overdramatized. Readers may find Jamie's story more interesting than Rachel's as his "letters not sent" ring true to the time period and offer a soldier's perspective on the war. A quiet, thoughtful novel, with more introspection than action.-Karen Alexander, Lake Fenton High School, Linden, MI

Copyright 2013 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from November 1, 2013
Grades 7-12 *Starred Review* Fifteen-year-old Rachel is dealing with a lot. Her brother, Jamie, has returned from WWII, haunted by the friendly fire that wounded him and killed his buddy Leeson. She has a crush on her high-school drama teacher and wonders if he feels the same way about herand does she really want him to? Then Rachel is quickly overwhelmed when the family learns that Jamie has leukemia and their mother is expecting a baby to, as Jamie angrily says, take my place. Johnston has crafted a beautifully written, low-key, yet emotional story of a family dealing with the return of a son at the close of war. Jamie is wracked with survivor's guilt and frustrated at returning to his adolescent way of life after having experienced the trauma of battle. His letters to Rachel, unsent but carefully saved so he can read and reread them, are painfully realistic, the antithesis of the glamour that teens too often assign to war, regardless of the decade. The family has more than its share to cope with during the year that Rachel narrates the story, but the love the characters feel for each otherand the resilience that love offers themmakes this difficult story authentic and ultimately hopeful.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)